The law of superposition was orginally created by a danish scientist, Nicolaus Steno in the 17th century. The law "simply stated, that any pile of sedimentary rocks, that haven't been disturbed by folding or overturning, the strata on the bottem was deposited first." This mneans that on an excavation, you find something close to the surface, and something deeper in the ground, the one closest to the surface, is the newest.
This law was first used by Thomas Jefferson. He was the first to apply the priniciples of stratigraphy to archaeology. Other archaeologists have used this to date artifacts. The only prblem with the law is that if wind activity is reversed and, instad of sand being deposited on top of an artifact, i could be removed. Which makes this system of dating artifacts inaccurate.
Even though this way of dating artifacts, may have a few glitches. It is still consifered a very effecctive way to find the age of an artifact. This law has been used for centuries. And there are ways to overcome the problems. These are just some of the reasons, why the law of superposition, is important in archaeology in the past, present, and future.
The law of superposition was orginally created by a danish scientist, Nicolaus Steno in the 17th century. The law "simply stated, that any pile of sedimentary rocks, that haven't been disturbed by folding or overturning, the strata on the bottem was deposited first." This mneans that on an excavation, you find something close to the surface, and something deeper in the ground, the one closest to the surface, is the newest.
This law was first used by Thomas Jefferson. He was the first to apply the priniciples of stratigraphy to archaeology. Other archaeologists have used this to date artifacts. The only prblem with the law is that if wind activity is reversed and, instad of sand being deposited on top of an artifact, i could be removed. Which makes this system of dating artifacts inaccurate.
Even though this way of dating artifacts, may have a few glitches. It is still consifered a very effecctive way to find the age of an artifact. This law has been used for centuries. And there are ways to overcome the problems. These are just some of the reasons, why the law of superposition, is important in archaeology in the past, present, and future.
Christine E. Farzan